Pandita Ramabai and the Temples That Breathe

In 1889, Pandita Ramabai opened the doors of Sharada Sadan in Pune, India, a refuge for child widows and girls rescued from temple prostitution. Ramabai, a Sanskrit scholar who had converted to Christianity, understood something the culture around her refused to acknowledge — that a human body is never merely an object for another's use. She had watched young girls discarded by a system that treated their bodies as commodities.…